GemArts is strutting into Summer with Masala Festival 2019!

GemArts award winning Masala Festival is back, strutting into summer like a Bengal tiger from 15-21 July 2019, as we bring you another magnificent line up of classical, traditional and contemporary artists from the UK and Indian sub-continent, exploring themes of home, belonging, freedom, resistance, luck and hope. Download your Masala Festival 2019 brochure here.

Launching on 15th July, at Sage Gateshead, with an incredible collaboration and special evening of music composed and performed by the internationally renowned Sarod maestro Ustad Wajahat Khan with a String Quintet from our region’s fantastic chamber orchestra Royal Northern Sinfonia.

A Musical Trio : Wajahat Khan (Sarod) during the performanvce at Tata Theatre, NCPA on 08/02/2019. Photo By : NARENDRA DANGIYA

Followed by two of the most prominent women on the contemporary jazz scene, on 16th July Zoe Rahman and Laura Macdonald.

For spoken word and poetry, look no further than Luck and Hope: an evening of poetry  with two of the best poets writing today Mona Arshi and Imtiaz Dharkar at Culture Lab, and a stellar line up of regional spoken word talent in Strictly Spoken with our partners at Arch16.

We have a fantastic line up of films this year with: heartwarming, ‘feel good’ comedy of the year Eaten by Lions following half brothers Omar and Pete on a journey of discovery via Blackpool, featuring Jonny Vegas and Jack Carroll; stunning cinematography and subdued tension with The Sweet Requiem, showing an unforgettable reflection on an ongoing and forgotten Tibetan refugee crisis and contemporary film shorts about freedom, desire and resistance in Woman.

“The Sweet Requiem” directed and produced by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam of White Crane Films, Photo by: PABLO BARTHOLOMEW Photo credit: PABLO BARTHOLOMEW All rights reserved. For permission and licensing rights: PLEASE CONTACT: pablo@bartholomew.tv Or by cellphone +91 98100 14131

Writer, performer and professional wrestling manager, Pariah Khan brings his ‘shrewd and bitingly funny’ An Indian Abroad to Northern Stage on 20th July, where we follow the story of Krishnan, who is stifled by life in middle class India and decides to visit the exotic island of Great Britain. What will he learn about himself? And what happens when he falls in love with one of the natives?

If you want to get yourself moving, why not try out Bollywood dance,  yoga on the beach or if you are if need of a little TLC before the summer try out an introdution to Meditation.

Not to mention the amazing menu being cooked up by Dabbawal throughout the week, watch here for their menu reveal soon!!

Masala  Festival ends on Sunday 21^st July at Live Theatre’ Garden with a spectacular fun packed Mini Mela finale, with FREE South Asian arts, craft, music and dance workshops for all of the family to enjoy. This year enter a seafront arcade in a caravan with ….. Elvis’ Bingo Balls, neon, sounds of the slots and an Indian Elvis as your bingo caller! Not to mention Circus Raj, a circus troupe from India performing throughout the day, with stilt walkers, extreme juggling, sword swallowing and acrobatics, plus dancing marionettes and much, much more…..

There really is something for everyone. Visit www.gemarts.org to find out more and book tickets.

Look out for our beautiful brochure around Newcastle and Gateshead or download your full brochure here GemArts Masala Festival 2019 Brochure

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GemArts Autumn Winter Season 2018

As the lovely warm weather continues our Autumn Winter Season brochure has arrived and brings an eclectic mix of new commissions, exhibitions, workshops and events to the region for that Indian Summer glow. Download your full brochure here GemArts Autumn Winter 2018 Brochure

Thank you to everyone who came to our Masala Festival in July and made it such a huge success! You still have time to see Sumit Sarkar’s fantastic Everything Nothing Exhibition at Gateshead Central Library on until 2 October, featuring new commissioned work by GemArts, including a new marble sculpture created by a robotic arm!

Launching our exceptional Riverside Ragas programme this Autumn we have spectacular Sitar players, Purbayan Chatterjee , accompanied by Gurdain Rayatt on Tabla, and rising star Jasdeep Singh Degun presenting groundbreaking sounds from the traditional to the contemporary.

Setting a new benchmark for Indo-Western collaboration, later in the season we are excited to present the official launch performance of GemArts supported, Trilaka epic double album of Simon Thacker’s Svara-Kanti.

Purbayan Chatterjee

Jasdeep Singh Degun

Gurdain Rayatt

 

With something for all the family, you can delight the kids in October half term, with Jungle Book, where you can follow fearless Mowgli’s wild adventures through the jungle with inventive shadow theatre, powerful music and colourful digital projections.

Marking the festive season, November brings our annual Diwali festival of lights with delicious Indian food and a night of Bollywood and Bhangra Beats, bring your dancing shoes!  Outstanding vocalist Swati Natekar will take you on a musical journey in December with an evening of Ghazals, Thumris and old Bollywood Songs and we have a fantastic opportunity to hear novelist, Preti Taneja, reading from her debut novel We that are Young, a powerful retelling of King Lear set in contemporary New Delhi and winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2018.

Celebrating the New Year we welcome star of the future Kaviraj Singh on santoor in January, as part of the exciting New Year, New Artists Festival at Sage Gateshead. Visit our website for more information on this soon.

As always we will be delivering workshops and projects for schools and with community groups over the coming months and launching our new animation to raise awareness of Mate Crime. Projects aim to support equality, promote diversity and tackle inequality. For more information about projects please visit GemArts Projects.

We look forward to seeing you over the coming months. Keep up to date on our news by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

JUST A VIBRATION COMPETITION

Win tickets to Just A Vibration on 13th July at Sage Gateshead, and a copy of this fantastic project on CD. Visit Living North Competition for details.

Photo Duncan Lomax

My work placement with GemArts

Hello, my name is Laichee.

I am a Northumbria University MA student, currently studying Cultural Management. As part of the course, students are required to find an arts or cultural organisation to complete a placement with. After researching local organisations, and speaking to my lecturers I decided that GemArts would be an interesting organisation to study and gain experience in. I have been working with GemArts as part of this first student placement since 24th February 2015, experiencing Indian classical concerts, studying the organisation as a whole and learning about the processes and procedures they have in place.

I come from Malaysia, a multiracial country, where Malay, Chinese, Indian, and other minority ethnic groups including Sikh have all settled. GemArts mission is to increase equality of opportunity for everyone to engage with culturally diverse arts – as producers, participants and audiences. Being part of GemArts, has created a sense of belonging and nostalgia for me, especially through their work presenting Indian and other diverse cultural art forms in Newcastle. The ancient Indian melodies and odes I have listened to at GemArts concerts, and the beautiful dance images in the brochure and on the website, quickly reminded me of the Indian culture that can be seen and experienced in my own country.  This has been a lovely reminder of Malaysia while I am so far from home. Before I leave GemArts I hope to write a short piece about the performances I attended while working with the organisation.

GemArts office is located in the beautiful old building of Gateshead Old Town Hall, but their work spreads much further than this. While working with the organisation I have attended Indian classical concerts at Sage Gateshead, as well as a dance performance at Newcastle College Performance Academy. Alongside the programme of concerts and events, GemArts also work in participatory arts with community groups and schools. On International Women’s Day I was able to join women working on one of GemArts’ art projects. They group were celebrating the day at Bensham Grove, making hand dyed, woodcut printed textile bookmarks. I met lovely women at the event, and had a good chat with one woman who had moved to Gateshead from India. There were no barriers between us, though this was the first time we met, all the women in the group were working together to make the event a success and share their skills.

Designs made by Laichee at International Womens Day Celebration event March 2015

During these weeks I have really enjoyed working alongside and learning from Vikas, Director of GemArts, who is full of dynamic energy, which is also seen in GemArts as an organisation. I agree with the description of GemArts as “…a dynamic arts development organisation…”, and I like the focusing atmosphere here in the office. I have a few more weeks left working with GemArts, and I look forward to learning more about this organisation, and the next high quality Arts performance on 18^th April, Murad Ali and Gurdain Rayatt.

Post by Laichee